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Anthony "Tony" Foyle[2], the Viscount Gillingham, also known as Lord Gillingham, is an old Crawley family friend and has a romantic love interest in Lady Mary Crawley who enters his life following her husband Matthew Crawley's untimely death.

Biography

1922

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He knew Mary from childhood. He appears at a party thrown by the Crawley family "to help lift Lady Mary's spirit" which is the first time Mary has seen him since they were young. Robert calls him a "pirate" but Cora reminds him who Anthony is, and who his father was.

His renewed relationship with Mary makes him start to wonder whether he may have given up on life too soon.[3] He also has not fully come to terms with his father's death, and bonds with Mary though their shared grief. 

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He attempts to assist Mary in running the estate. He also accompanies her and her relatives to the Lotus jazz club in London, where they dance. But then he secretly follows the family back to Downton on the same train (he rides in third class so they don't see him). Tony proposes to Mary. Mary eventually turns him down because she is still not over Matthew's death. Tony agrees to leave, but not before requesting a kiss from Mary, saying he loves her. He stays one night and then leaves.

Tony later becomes engaged to the Hon. Mabel Lane Fox, but the engagement is more a relationship of convenience rather than love. Mary refers to Miss Fox as "the greatest heiress of the season." After the engagement is announced in the papers, Mary writes to Tony to congratulate him, when in truth she is feeling regret for not accepting him. Her sister remarks how she was sure Tony was keen on her.

Tony later returns to Downton Abbey, reuniting with an old friend from the war, Mary's suitor and Evelyn Napier's boss Charles Blake. After Mary learns from Anna that Tony's valet Green assaulted her, she meets with Tony for luncheon in London and asks him to dismiss Green, saying only that he did something abhorrent. Tony wonders what it was, but professing his love for her he agrees to do so. Then he later tells her, because of the conversation they had, that Green was killed (telling her only what he heard, that he fell into the road and got run over).

Eventually Tony decides to break off his engagement, because of his feelings for Mary. Though Mary insists she is still not on the "market" Tony is determined to win her nonetheless.

1923

Tony is still in pursuit of Mary by the summer of 1923, and dances with her at a ball in London. He later tells Mary that his friend and rival for her, Blake, is not an outsider as she thinks but is in fact heir to an estate even greater than his own, although it is a baronetcy, which would make Charles Blake a baronet, two ranks below a viscount (Lord Gillingham's title) in the British peerage. In fact, a baronetcy is the only hereditary honour which is not an actual peerage. As Mary later explains to Blake, she thinks Gillingham wanted it (their rivalry for her) to be a fair fight.

Note

Appearances

Appearances and Mentions
   
Series 4 Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3
Appears
Episode 4
Appears
Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7
Appears
Episode 8
Appears
Christmas Special
Appears
   
Series 5 Episode 1
Appears
Episode 2
Appears
Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Episode 8 Christmas Special
   
Series 6 Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Episode 8 Christmas Special

Behind the Scenes

  • The casting call refers to him as handsome, in his thirties, with a "winning personality."

External Links

  1. Downton Abbey season 4, episode 3 video: Watch scene with Michelle Dockery, Tom Cullen at Cartermatt

References

  1. The casting call referred to him as "in his thirties", which means he was between 30 and 40 in 1922.
  2. (2013, September). Attitude Magazine
  3. S4 Press Pack.
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